Covenant Isrillion - current population

Yva left for Annalum with Caleth
No Melians here!

An admission of wrongdoing; some reasons why—

For some reason, I’d thought she’d come back. Piffle. It is much funnier with a Melian in the mix.

I posted this in part to remind myself what an odd assortment of personalities make up Isrillion these days, but mostly to try and help move the old homestead out of frozen post-story time and ease it into the more distant and considered narrative flow of the Order in general. I’d thought perhaps a series of comments or edits to the wiki, reminding us all of where the characters were and what they were most likely up to, would help, and help also in drafting the 421 - 425 (and on) portion of the covenant’s actual history. —But by the time I had the list assembled, there was something else for me to go and do, and I never really came up with a clever way of phrasing “Elias is still living in his tower and poking at the vis-soaked corpse of his parens,” so I kinda just left it. “Yva left for Annalum with Caleth,” while proving I mis-heard something somewhere at some point, is nonetheless a good start.

Also: Ysrillien is an accepted spelling. Isrillien, even. (We are rather pre-Webster’s, after all.) But I think we can agree that Ysrillion is just plain silly?

Poor dear Aldonzo
Anyone have any ideas as to how long it might take before the Isrillion magi finally give up and admit that Aldonzo is No Longer With Us?

I'm thinking that eventually, after a protracted enough silence and a sufficient number of unanswered messages shot through the tubes, Tydfal would likely write a kind letter of condolence to Aldonzo's Plenilunial relations at Hart's Desire and notify the Cristofereans at Annalum.

Then, of course, should Aldonzo ever put in another, errr... appearance, then all bets are off. I'm rather under the impression, though, that whatever incorporeal bits of him have been lingering around are pretty much dispelled now.

Any thoughts?

You know, I'd been thinking t
You know, I'd been thinking that he was the one strapped to a (I guess, now that I think of it) theocratic device somewhere in the mountain, but that's the Touccian twins from Isrillion, isn't it?

Did Aldonzo have a mouldering corpse to trip over? Seems more likely that he dispersed into air. Maybe he was part of the pneumatic tube system, and when the big spell happened that unsorcelled the stairway et al happened, he went *poof*.

Yeah, the Touccian twins are
Yeah, the Touccian twins are the ones strapped to the device in the mines, the sight of which caused poor Quotannis, traumatized survivor of the Mille Lacus incident, to barge into the Coronal's Tower, scream invective at Tydfal, and then pack his bags to leave. Heh. Poor bastard.

I am also of the belief that Aldonzo was blitzed by that massive device-killing perdo vim spell. I seem to remember that since then, we've heard from him only once, and not since early 421 or so. My feeling is that those last couple of messages were probably just the last lingering bits of his dissipating incorporeal sentience, and that he's pretty much all gone by 425.

So if no one objects, I'm going to declare him dead in 424 and make the appropriate adjustments to the lists. I did want to give people the chance, though, to chime in with a "Nah, let's say he survived the blast as an incorporeal spirit and keep him around in the tubes a while longer, 'cause he's cool" if they felt strongly about it.

Isrillion thoughts...

So of course when I should be thinking of other things I find myself thinking of Isrillion, over and above and beyond the tragedy of Blue.

• How long do Coronals serve? I’m thinking it was ten years. So Tydfal’s about halfway through his term in 425. How’s he liking it? —More particularly: I’m wondering how Asonder’s absence affected covenant politics in 422 — 424, with Tydfal mostly balancing (I think) between the suave ambition of Gratuitus and the roughly erratic entitlement of Elias. Hubris and Catherine Caroline aren’t as focussed, I don’t think, on administrative stuff, though I could be misremembering how much of Caroline Catherine’s ambitions depend on running the Shield of the Order rather than just wandering about doing Good Things. Heck, Elias isn’t focussed on administrative stuff; he just has power by virtue of having been born there and having everyone scared shitless of him, which he uses pretty much reflexively, so I’m mostly thinking he causes problems by just doing things without ever checking with anyone or taking anyone else’s plans into account; hence, “rough entitlement.”

• I was thinking Elias might start hunting for an apprentice at some point in 425 – 426. He’s young, but that’s his style, and he’s written his first book, and I think poking at Nechanorré’s corpse has taught him about all he can learn from it. Besides, the image of him doting on a miniature version of himself, dressed all in black, made me smile; I think he’ll oddly enough be a good, even loving mentor, if fiercely overprotective. —When the kid gets old enough to think for himself, though, all bets are off.

And then this image popped in my head, and I couldn’t stop giggling: Wednesday Addams scowling at one of those sexpot fairy Barbie dolls, or, Elias’s apprentice and Gratuitus’s apprentice, and how much fun they’d have hating on and needling each other. —Elias, of course, cares not one whit for his House’s traditions and sense of propriety (when he doesn’t want to); it would be just like him to train up a girl and never even bother to have her gauntletted when all is said and done. So I’m thinking maybe this is what’s in store. (This image works with a boy, too, but the boy is somehow not so dour and serious, and it’s dour seriousness that makes it giggleworthy for me: he’d be more gothsnarky Klarion the Witchboy, but that’s maybe because I just read that comic.)

• And then there’s me poor old Heartland, way off to the West. The mythology has evolved somewhat in the intervening years, and includes among its several and varied primordial demigods (Stewards?) a figure known as the Kefnysen, who (which?) invented a number of arts, among them fleshsmithy: which allows for among other things the extreme body distortions that accompany the Irish berserker’s warp spasm, or something like it. —Perhaps this is what the Shru Kephis are scared of, that drove them in turn to drive out the Andar, who came down the An to swallow the fly? Anyway, idle thoughts as to how Elias could pick up the scent of that and seriously dig into corpus for a bit: extreme body modification and vivimancy. Real stuff of life stuff. Could keep him busy for a while; could end up sending him West, Attica-wards, maybe. (And if there is a Shru Kephis connection, that could fuel whatever nascent Elias-Gratuitus rivalry might be a-borning. Or not.)

So. Anyone else?

Isrillion Thoughts
How long do Coronals serve? I’m thinking it was ten years. So Tydfal’s about halfway through his term in 425. How’s he liking it?

Was it ten? For some reason, I thought it was less. At any rate, he's hated every minute of it, naturally, and can't wait for it to be over -- although I suspect that when the time comes, he won't much like being subject to someone else in the role either. There's just no pleasing some people.

—More particularly: I’m wondering how Asonder’s absence affected covenant politics in 422 — 424, with Tydfal mostly balancing (I think) between the suave ambition of Gratuitus and the roughly erratic entitlement of Elias.

That was pretty much how we've been imagining it as well when we've discussed this here. Matt and I think that Gratuitus and Tydfal would probably have become a lot closer during Asonder's absence: they share many opinions of How Things Should Be Run, and Gratuitus is, well, relatively sane, which Tydfal appreciates. In fact, Tydfal's been wondering if there's going to be any way to arrange for Gratuitus to succeed Asonder in the leadership queue without angering Elias.

(Of course we all know that Elias wouldn't really want to deal with the administrative business of running the covenant, but that doesn't mean that he wouldn't get royally steamed if he felt he was being passed over, either. Like you said: entitlement.)

Elias taking on a girl apprentice is tasty stuff to be sure! As is the Attica idea. And Wednesday Addams vs. the Victorian Faery Porn Princess makes me giggle madly as well.

I'd been thinking more along the lines of the Litan connection for Elias' future plotlines...but more on that later.

First, here's what I've been thinking about Tydfal.

In 423, he travelled to Antrum to attend at the death bed of Garrunculus. (My thought on this was that given the shape we saw Garrunculus in during his one brief in-game appearance, it was pretty strongly impled that he was not going to make it to the next conjugation. He was already slipping into what looked pretty definitively like Final Twilight all the way back in 421.)

I think that this decision caused some friction with Catherine Caroline, who felt that he was walking bare-assed into a trap. For that matter, Tydfal himself was fairly certain that going to Antrum so close to conjugation was toddling straight into a spider's web --but he also felt that he didn't have any real choice in the matter. Even laying aside all issues of filial obligation, he genuinely loved Garrunculus.

At Antrum, of course, he had to deal with his dreadful uncle Borealis and even more dreadful cousin Mercator, who were both perfectly awful to poor Garrunculus on his death bed --but nevermind all that. It doesn't have much impact on anyone else.

What does have impact on others is that while there, Tydfal also struck a deal with the desperately-in-need-of-a-name M95, ambitious filia of Nocte Natus. She was deep in planning the founding of a new covenant on the ruins of Ultorum at the time, and was making a very serious bid for the Primuship. Effectively, he tried to trade her leadership of the House in exchange for (a) protection from the other Antrum players who were gunning for him at the time, and (b) beneficial reciprocal trade agreements and a political alliance between Isrillion and her new covenant.

Also a factor here, of course, was that Tydfal didn't really think that the Fumus guy stood a snowball's chance in hell of being recognized by the House, and M95 was his preferred candidate of all of the contenders for Primus that he did think stood a chance.

So this was Tydfal's first attempt at power-brokering, and it wasn't much of a success. M95 was outmaneuvered by the Fumus guy in spite of having an inside man at Isrillion, the new Primus Presumptive (who even more desperately needs a name!) was not altogether pleased by the back-stab, and probably the other Isrillion magi were royally pissed off at Tydfal for going behind their backs like that.

On the other hand, it was not as disastrous a failure as it could have been. For one thing, we now have some nice new trade agreements (since Tydfal had only promised M95 access to Isrillion, not to ensure that she be acclaimed Prima, their bargain still holds). For another, the Primus Presumptive is still awfully pleased with Isrillion -- and even with Tydfal, really. He is, after all, a Manerean: he had been expecting something of this sort to be in the works; if he'd been in Tydfal's shoes, you can bet your ass that he would have had a Contingency Primus in line; Tydfal was appropriately submissive gracious in defeat and very quick to acclaim him as Primus once it became clear how things were all shaking out; and having overcome some resistance from Isrillion actually makes him (and Fumus et Specula) look much better to the rest of the House than it would have had he attained power through a pure and unsullied alliance with Isrillion. So we're cool with Fumus.

I am imagining that Catherine Caroline took rather the opposite approach: that she read the situation more accurately than Tydfal did, and spent most of conjugation with her lips surgically attached to our new Primus's ass. Uh. Metaphorically speaking, that is. I can see her passing herself off as his Aide and Right-Hand Mage and The Hand Behind His Rise, and pulling it off very nicely indeed --much (I am sure) to the annoyance of his filius, Denny. I am imagining that she came out of conjugation with quite a nice rise in status within the House. I do not much envy the new Primus for having to put up with her, but then, that's what you get when you aim to be the Primus Manere, isn't it.

::detects a bit of Tydfal's rather bitchy persona slipping into her narrative and slaps him down irritably::

Right. So anyway.

The other big thing I've been imagining coming out of conjugation from Tydfal's perspective (and everyone else's, for that matter) has to do with Isrillion's growing ties to Virginis In Litus.

Our new Primus Presumptive is an ex-Litan; Elias and Mister Blue became members of the Litan Gens at the House Restructure in 423; the Litan Manereans actually showed up for the 424 conjugation (which is a big part of what cemented the new Primus' claim). So a fairly strong Isrillion-Litus alliance seems to be coalescing.

I think that post-424, we're going to be seeing Tydfal becoming increasingly caught up with the Litans, whose much-renowned magical defensive system just might be (he thinks) the key that will enable him to get past his block on that expanded parma magica he's been working on. This will probably raise yet more diabolism accusations, true, but frankly, Tydfal can't be bothered with all that political crap anymore. He's a mage, dammit. He wants to actually study magic for a change.

And that brings us to what I'd been considering as possible plot for Elias down the line: that thorny little fact that he's now sworn to the Dux of Gens Virginis. Should the Quintus Opacans continue in their harrassment of that covenant, there's a possibility that at some point Elias (and Mister Blue, if he's still with us) might actually be summoned to the Dawn to fight for their Gens.

I think that would be a great plotline (and man, would it piss Elias off!). But we'll see.

Other conjugation stuff...oh yeah. Matt thinks that the Ne Interirans and their allies, while they failed to get a Primus they like ensconced in power, should nonetheless have been able to score some massive points off of Isrillion in 424/425. I'm hip with that. I think that more diabolism accusations would probably not fly right now -- too soon after the Last Hope Conspiracy -- but they could probably have made quite a bit of political hay out of Isrillion's having resorted to fae magics and Litan-descended allies and cowardly Wendellian-style hidey-hole techniques in order to protect their covenant. Not quite the "Shield of the Order" as Pilafian envisioned it, no? "Isrillion is weak" would probably have been a far more effective refrain than "Isrillion is diabolist" this time around, methinks.

But as to the specifics, I...have no good ideas here. Anyone have any ideas for the precise manner in which the Ne Interirans might have managed to get in some good blows against Isrillion?

What else? Oh, Hubris Extremis is feeling extremely cranky and disaffected because he feels that he didn't get nearly enough credit for all of the work he put into the conjugation. The Fumus et Speculans stole his glory, and since he's not a Manerean, nobody was really all that interested in how big a part he had played in the affair. He wanted admiration and validation and status, and he didn't get near enough of any of that for his tastes. So he's been sulking.

Oh, yeah, and some time before conjugation, the Isrillion magi decided it was way past time to get serious about the banditry problem in the valley. This was, admittedly, a bit of a ploy to try to boost the military's morale, but also, it just doesn't do to have bandits running around your area. So there was an expedition into the valley to hunt them all down and leave their bodies ostentatiously hanging as a warning to others that we're really just not going to tolerate that sort of thing any more.

When we've talked about this in the household, we've agreed that Elias absolutely should have been heavily involved with this. For one thing, as Isrillion's Savacion, it's obviously his department. For another, I think that it might well have flattered him a bit to have been considered crucial to some covenant endeavor. And for a third thing, the fresh air would likely have done him good.

What bearing if any that expedition might have had on the observations which went into the writing of his lovely little book, I can not say. I can only guess. And then resolve not to dwell too much on it.

Elias? Sweating?
Yeah, pretty funny. —If it isn't ten years, it was five, and I didn’t think it was so short.

Proposed name for the Primus Presumptive, whose mage-number I have no idea of: In Hunc Intuens, or “Look at this.”

Ten years it is
Charles's memory corresponds with yours. I guess it is ten years after all. No idea why I misremembered that.

In Hunc Intuens sounds good to me, if for no other reason than that a Primus named "hunc" totally cracks me up.

I'm very mature that way.

A Red Shirt coming to his end
It seems to me that sometime between 242 and 246 Lefty has a stroke. With all the magical work done on his brain it seems logical, magic wise. So is resigned to duty on top of the gate on the days he's able or otherwise is given some other menial task. Later he goes quickly grey over the course of a year. In general he remains in high spirits for what extended family survives, the Septimus and his other buddies from the good old days but is otherwise waiting to die.

Buddies from the good old days.

Since one of the vague plots I’d had in mind for the trip to Marienburg and its aftermath would have involved the Septimus finally confronting the crimes of his youth, and it was even odds whether he’d even survive the encounter, and even if not forced directly there’s the man’s self-loathing to consider, to say nothing of his liver—anyway, it’s not a bad bet that Lefty will outlast ol’ Whiskers.

I do wonder: given that Gratuitus and Tydfal grow closer over the years, how does our favorite Shru Kephis Lemmite feel about the Coronal’s Dresser?

The Septimus and the bandits.

Whiskers, Sandy, and Lefty were inseparable growing up. Their idol in Isrillion’s guards was a rather dashing if cruel Quartus named Flash. Whiskers was the first of the three of them to make Secundus, and then Quintus, on the strength of his letters and his fine organizational mind. He became a favorite of Nechanorré and the old Septimus, and was peter-principal’d into the role of Sextus in time for the disastrous expedition to Chylorissa.

(Isrillion’s rank system: “Hands” of six soldiers each, five Primi and one Secundus, gathered under the control of a Quartus; I don’t remember what the Terti did; the Quintus was the quartermaster; the Sextus, the executive office; the Septimus, of course, the commander.)

Whiskers was the only survivor of the expedition’s complement of soliders. Shortly after their return to Isrillion, the old Septimus died of the ’flu. To Nechanorré, there was only one choice to replace him: Whiskers. The new Septimus named Flash as his Sextus.

Then the stories began: the Septimus is unlucky; the Septimus entered into an unholy pact with the magi; the old Septimus wasn’t ill, he was murdered. Nothing gets out of hand, but the rumors are hard to stop. The Septimus is unpopular. But the Sextus is as popular as ever.

Then the Septimus discovered that his Sextus and some Primi were shaking down local towns. One town—Worms—couldn’t pay, so they assaulted a couple of the town’s girls, just to prove they could, in Isrillion’s name (the covenant is still not welcome there). But no one at Isrillion believed it was really the Sextus: just some bandits sullying the covenant’s name. So the Septimus, all alone—not even Nechanorré would help him—in desperation turns to those bandits, arranging with Captain Mazian’s Band of Free Brigands to have the Sextus and one of the Primi ambushed and killed. The attack is blamed on vengeful vigilantes from Worms. (They still aren’t welcome up by the covenant.)

The Septimus was made sick by this—ordering the murder of his idol. He never told anyone. Not even when Mazian began blackmailing him. The Septimus has been working to keep Mazian’s band safe and sassy ever since.

One of the Quarti who fled Isrillion in 420 ended up in Mazian’s band, and learned the truth. Ever since, he’s been burning for revenge. —I imagine this might well have come to a head during the campaign to cut down on banditry.

Those Wacky Shru Kephis
I've been wondering what Gratuitus has been up to as well.

The way he sees it the Dresser is Tydfal's personal servant and is to be treated with respect, though when the Dresser seems too nosy, Gratuitus can always send his apprentice off to play with him. After all he is a Dresser, surely he enjoys dress-up.

Our last game was set in 421, correct? I think that for the next couple of years following that Gratuitus was busy trying to make friends with his fellow magi and some of the covenant peoples, training his apprentice what he is supposed to but not much more, studying his Eleanoraen text, defifintely going to help with the brutal slaughter of the bandits, perhaps going so far as to try to fix or make new some magical device to aid in the covenants running and in general over extending his time and efforts.

By mid/late 423 he switches gears to grinding the perverted sex-kitten act out of his apprentice and teaching her proper Choleaic magic. Just starts taking a more rigorous approach to teaching her so she won't look so terribly freakish come the Linguan Conjugation. He keeps up his social activity but is mostly trying to prepare his student so she is presentable as a 5(?) year apprentice at the Conjugation. Which means at meals people get to overhear them stating allegorical introspections and replies from the Books of Lem. He knows he can't, nor is he trying to, completely remove her je ne sais quoi.

The Conjugation was a smash. The Linguan one that is. Not only did all or almost all the real Linguans show, but some former Linguans as well a Purpureans also arrived and a good time was had by all. Sure all the Manereans were in a tizzy over their own Conjugation and Hubris was waiting for them all to praise him for saving the day, which never came, and Elias was in his tower glowering, but Gratuitus was having a grand time. Also the Lemmites probably did properly thank Hubris and blow smoke up his ass for doing the most astounding piece of illusion magic they'd seen and keeping all those annoying Manereans away from their party. Just seems in fitting with Purpurean sense of humor and handing out false entitlement.

Since the Conjugation he is still training his apprentice very thoroughly and again looking for a Covenant fixture to fix or make new. He probably has also started being more polite and sociable with Hubris since the Conjugation, honestly very thankful for his work, but also seeking further backers for Coronelship in what... 15 years from now?

Whiskers' dark secrets
Ouch. Oh, ouch.

Shit, and here I always figured that Chylorissa was what drove the poor guy to drink. (And yes, by the way, Tydfal did indeed assume that the old Septimus's "'flu" was one of Nechanore's little murders, although it never would have occurred to him to think badly of the then-Sextus on that account.)

Yeah, we should probably figure out exactly how that all panned out, as well as precisely when it took place.

How much of this backstory might Sandy know...or suspect?

re: Whiskers' dark secrets
I think it was the drink that helped him decide that trusting Mazian was a good idea.

And I don’t think Sandy knew or suspected much at all: I always imagined him aghast at the revelations. Again, Chylorissa alone seems to have been enough to drive the Septimus to his legendary drinking, and no one ever believed that Flash did what he did, so why on earth would the Septimus have had his right-hand man killed?

re: Whiskers' dark secrets
It would come as a complete shock, agreed. I am sure that Sandy, like Tydfal (and I suspect everyone else), always took the obvious reading of the Septimus' quite evident distaste for Mazian and his merry band of free brigands.

Isrillion's Tertii
I seem to remember that the Tertii were those charged with undertaking personal bodyguard duties for the magi. They had special training in dealing with matters magical, and were usually well-equipped with parma rings and the like. Elias' mum's friend Jenna was one of them, IIRC.